Retail media is the topic everyone is talking about in the retail and consumer goods industry. And for good reason: the $45 billion U.S. retail media market is surging as retailers capitalize on the consumer shift to ecommerce while offering advertisers access to their unique audiences and data insights. Many retailers developed their own retail media networks over the last few years, from digital marketplaces and department stores to commerce intermediaries.

We just shared big news about the open-sourcing of our Node.js Runtime and the release of our AI Copilot for Node, both requiring a big role from our infrastructure (Infra) team. They are the team behind the scenes, dedicated to delivering top performance, and have been instrumental in maintaining our reputation for fast, stable, and secure delivery of our SaaS product and Binary Distributions–which generate over 100 million annual downloads a year.

In the ever-evolving landscape of software testing, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not just been a game-changer; it’s been a paradigm shift. Test automation, once a static process, has metamorphosed into a dynamic and intelligent entity, reshaping how we approach quality assurance.

When it comes to automation testing, Katalon and Cypress are among the most loved choices. Prized for their simplicity, ease of use, and powerful capabilities, they are both a great choice for any teams wanting to improve their testing efficiency. However, Katalon and Cypress have their own unique strengths that fit specific testing needs. If you are considering which tool to choose for your team, read on.

The current state of AI, despite the relevant infancy of the tools, showcases promising potential. While human assistance is still needed, the convergence of chat UI and large language models allows users to ask for what they want in a natural language, and the technology is growing intelligent enough to respond or even take action.

The rapid development and deployment of software applications largely rely on the power of APIs. These Application Programming Interfaces act as the glue holding together various components, enabling efficient communication and data exchange between them. From mobile apps to web services and enterprise systems, APIs are ubiquitous, playing a critical role in the seamless functioning of modern software architecture – but its important to take internal API security risks seriously.

Today, we’re excited to release the Kong Konnect EKS Marketplace add-on as a means to deploy your Kong Gateway dataplanes in AWS. The add-ons are a step forward in providing fully managed Kubernetes clusters. It is here to simplify the post-procurement process of bootstrapping Kong Konnect gateway data planes, avoid context switching among tools during the installation process, and provide notifications when a new version of Kong Gateway is available, making upgrades seamless.

Web testing is a crucial part of any web development project. Considering the wide range of activities going into this process, it is a great investment to find a good website testing tool to assist you. How does a tool help? Instead of manually interacting with the site to uncover bugs, testers can automate everything with a good tool without writing much code.

In 2023, many business intelligence conferences returned to in-person events. While some events slated for 2024 are still virtual or hybrid, this year's top business intelligence events have something in common from Spain, to France, Italy, Japan, Australia and Las Vegas in the United States.

As the year comes to an end, we at SmartBear are thrilled to share some exciting news and milestones we have achieved in 2023. From being recognized as a Visionary in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for API Management to launching our integrated tools, we’ve been dedicated to delivering industry-leading solutions for developers and organizations. In this end-of-year blog, we will highlight our accomplishments, discuss our commitment to innovation, and look forward to what lies ahead.